Admission appeals

UBC understands why students would want to know exactly why they did not get admitted. You might want to know if it was your admission average, your grades in a particular course, or your Personal Profile assessment. Unfortunately, there isn’t generally one single reason. It’s usually a combination of factors that would have made your application more competitive:

If your overall average had been higher.

If your grades in a particular course had been higher.

If you had a higher Personal Profile score.

If there had been fewer applicants to the degree you applied for.

If you are not admitted to UBC

Admission appeals are considered at UBC for one of two reasons:

The University made an error in the admission process (e.g., UBC miscalculated your admission average).

A mitigating circumstance (e.g., personal hardship, personal illness, family member illness, death of a family member) affecting your academic performance should be considered in the evaluation of your application for admission.

The following reasons are not acceptable for an admission appeal:

You think UBC should take another look at your application for admission.

Someone with similar grades to yours was given an offer of admission.

You really want to attend UBC.

You were given offers of admission to other universities, so you feel you should get a UBC offer of admission.

You were so close to getting an offer of admission.

Supporting documentation for an appeal

If you are submitting an appeal for mitigating circumstances, you must provide UBC with supporting documentation. The documentation must prove your claims, and must help UBC reviewers understand the grounds for your appeal. For example, if your appeal is due to illness, you must provide medical documentation, transcripts, letters of support, and/or email correspondence that clearly outlines:

Start and end dates of the illness;

Impact of the illness on your academic performance;

Treatment you received for the illness; and

Whether the illness is resolved and will no longer affect your academic performance.

Is your appeal likely to be successful?

Each application for admission to UBC is evaluated carefully and several times. For this reason, admission decisions are rarely overturned. Last year, only 15 of the 175 (8.5%) appeals UBC received were successful. Your appeal will not be successful if you fail to clearly:

Outline an acceptable rationale to support your appeal;

Provide UBC with evidence and supporting documentation;

Establish a clear link between the mitigating circumstances and your academic performance; and

Show that the mitigating circumstance has been resolved and will no longer affect your academic performance.